Generics: Bad news from Nepal

Share

I received this email from my friend in India this morning. He was setting about organising the first shipments of Hepcinat-LP.

Dear Greg,

Leave this task of the Nepalese Hepcinat aside for now. I will only deal with SOF from India. I called the broker to deliver the Hepcinat-LP so we could begin sending it out. I thought we could start by helping patients immediately this way. The broker is now asking for double the price he originally quoted. He is completely ridiculous. I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

If anyone needs SOF please let me know and I will be glad to assist.

Thanks & regards,

#########

I am very sorry about having raised everyone’s hopes! It makes me look stupid and the whole Indian generic Harvoni thing is becoming a dog’s breakfast.

What has happened?

Greed raises its ugly head again. Suddenly this broker realises that he can make double the profits because of the demand and with no concern for people he doubles his prices.

This greed thing really gets under my skin. Are humans so selfish and greedy that they can not be happy with a fair profit. Have we become so materialistic that we do not care about anything but money?

I recall two of the most important medicines invented in the 20th century. Penicillin and the Polio vaccine. The inventors of these two drugs did not even seek a patent on them and simply gave them to humanity to ease the suffering of fellow humans.

The inventor of Sofosbuvir took a patent and then sold it for billions of dollars to a company, Gilead, that specialises in making obscene profits from human suffering. Who is worse the inventor or the company?

So we wait for the release of the Indian generic Harvoni and pray that it is soon.